Today's NTSC televisions receive broadcast services from a variety of service providers (see FIG. 1). Most television receivers 12 are capable of receiving unscrambled, information or programs directly from broadcast 22, satellite 26 and cable 24 networks. Traditionally, cable networks 24 providing scrambled or encrypted programs usually require a separate stand-alone device 16a (e.g., a set-top box) to descramble or decrypt the program. Similarly, digital satellite systems usually provide scrambled or encrypted programs that also require the use of a separate set-top box 16b. These set-top boxes may utilize a removable smart card 18a, 18b which contain the necessary decrypting algorithms and keys. Typically, a separate set-top box is required for each service provider.
In the near future, broadcast digital television services may comprise 5 to 20 local channels, each of which may broadcast up to 10 simultaneous programs, some of these programs being pay-per-view programs. A user may want a mix of services from several of the different service providers. For example, a user may want to purchase all of the Indiana University basketball games from local channel 4 and purchase all of the Notre Dame football games from channel 13 and purchase all of the Indianapolis Colts games from channel 8. If each of these services were uniquely scrambled, the user would be burdened with purchasing multiple conditional access smart cards and swapping the cards as the user channel surfs.